Reminds me of a well written book that's hard to find.

Titled - "Were you ready when", ( fill in the blank )

Cross the bridge when ya get there.

Good question.

Since we are all a little bit different I think it depends on your total situation. A couple months cash is good, especially if you have the ability to quickly get more if needed. We can go to the big box stores like HD or Lowes and get pretty easy credit for materials and maybe even the labor if you use their people. Also, our regular credit cards can often handle problems with a month or more float to pay without interest. We can usually get more credit if needed.

That takes care of rental repairs and some/most rehab.

Then there is our personal lives. Health can usually be paid for in payments or maybe on the credit card. Same with cars/trucks.

If we keep expenses pretty much under control a couple months reserves is probably enough as long as we can access more if needed.

Considering the real rate of inflation, having a large amount in money market accounts or low paying interest is losing money as it becomes less valuable every day. That money needs to be carefully invested in assets that increase in value. The question is which assets and where? Fixer uppers? Flips? Stock futures trading? Crypto?

What do we do with hundreds of thousands or millions sitting around in 4 percent or less accounts when real estate prices are high? Buy nice toys? Vacation - go when I want to (like the song - thanks Bangles),set up a foundation to help others?

You "cash" reserves are very low! Here in Los Angeles, this Crazy Sanctuary City allowed tenants not to pay rent up to 4 years. From 2/1/2020 thru 3/1/2024, a tenant could NOT be evicted for NON-Payment of their rent.

So I had to continue provide service for those choosing not to pay rent for that 4 year period. My tenants owned me from that period $630,000.

Then after the January fires. the tenants effected by fire need not pay rent from 1/10/2025 thru 7/21/2025. Another $100,000 down the drain.

Then if I charged a new tenant more than 10% over the old tenants rent, I'd be hit with a $10,000 fine, not raised to $50,000.

So I had between lawyers and fines over $1,000,000 cash outlay. And I was ordered to make unnecessary repairs. like replacing all of my roof's, another $400K.

So during the past 4-5 years, I had coming out of my pocket around $1.5M. So your formula of a few months back up would have bankrupted me.

Here Judges are corrupt, the Los Angeles City Counsel (70%) are corrupt, Housing General Manager, Mayor, Supervisors, Inspectors and other like the City Attorney are all money hungry Bas.... If not the fact I have a license to carry and carry a back belt in karate, and I' not afraid to defend myself -- I would have been crushed, smashed like a bug and died years ago.

Need more details, RB. I can't find it on the internet search.

Read Robin's Catastrophe post a few down and you will get a flavor of what can happen. With a major event like that though, I'm not sure you can ever have enough cash just sitting around.

I keep enough cash for one major emergency (roof, HVAC, sewer line, etc) which I figure at about $8K per event on each 5-7 houses. I should say that I pretty much self insure the small to medium stuff with the very high deductible I carry so I tend to keep extra instead of paying premiums.

You don't need to keep cash around if you have ready ACCESS to it via credit lines secured by the equity in your property.

Yes, cash makes you rich. But equity does not make you wealthy. Equity eventually becomes cash. Wealth comes from something other than cash, although cash may be part of the equation.

Under capitalization is the second most common reason why businesses fail. The only reason that washes out more businesses, is not having a cash flow plan.

You are correct to be worried about these two intertwined concepts. There is no one size fits all rules. some general guidance is available.

I need to look into getting a couple HELOC's again.

We try to keep cash on hand, more than enough for emergencies (except maybe in Robin's case).

But then I will go buy a place and rehab it. The money is gone and the tensions rise because we do not have that cushion.

At the rate that I currently spend money, I could live for over two and a half years on what is in my money market account. It is not enough money to even buy a building lot where I am located so it is hard to keep it in real estate.

Hhmmm... Interesting topic and answers. After a couple of decades of being a landlord, for what it is worth, my position is:

1. One year gross income in a 1yr C.C., 1 month in checking.

2. An agreement with my contractor that I can make payments.

3. I am debt free and have been for a while. Proverbs 22:7.

4. Very good credit score with easy access to credit.

5. All of my rentals and home are repair free at this time.

This is more about your personal comfort level than anything else. I know that money is coming in every month so I could probably keep a couple of months and be okay but that’s not my comfort level. If you mean cash like in a bank I only keep as much as you. If you mean money that I can easily access then much more. I don’t work it out on a per month basis.